Srinagar: Senior National Conference leader and Member Parliament from Anantnag Hasnain Masoodi on Monday said that Sub District Hospital Shangus continues to remain functional only on papers, as the inadequate staff and infrastructure is taking a heavy toll on the patient-care.
Echoing the sentiments of the locals over the issue, Masoodi said, “The unnecessary referrals continue to mire the patient care in the health facility as they would not get treatment for their ailments in SDH Shangus. Government had upgraded the primary health centres to SDH level so that it tackles safe delivery of pregnant women besides providing treatment to other ailments as well. The upgradation has unfortunately remained confined to papers only and nothing substantial was done towards equipping the facility to live upto the requirements of its changed designation. Healthcare continues to remain as poor as it was before.”
The reason behind upgrading PHCs to SDH was to lessen the referrals towards district hospitals but in reality patients with minor injury or minor cases are advised to get shifted either to district hospital Anantnag or Srinagar hospitals. “The absence of specialists has severely dented the patient care at the hospital. I hope the J&K government will look into the issue and take necessary steps to provide impetus to the patient care at the facility.”
Masoodi has also asked the government to address the shortage of staff and equipment in PHC Khrew. “The area is prone to chest ailment due to the massive air pollution caused by adjoining cement factories. It therefore becomes all the more important to equip the local PHC with X-ray machines and other critical care gadgets particularly for chest related ailments.” He also demanded upgradation of PHC Khrew.
